The Song

“Silent Night” takes us to a human depth where religious, cultural and temporal boundaries dissolve. It connects the pre-industrial age with the modern world. The song unites people from many different nations.

The well-known verses 1, 2 and 6 speak mainly to our emotions. Verses 3,4 and 5 contain more theological messages, whose implications are not quite so present in our consciousness: the “abundance of mercy from Heaven”, the “fatherly love poured forth and like a brother lovingly embraced” and “the Lord free[ing] from wrath since the beginning of ancient times a salvation promised for the whole world”. These sentences cut to the core of the Christian message, a message of peace that internally unites mankind in awe of a helpless child and makes all humans brothers and sisters. For Christians, God may be witnessed in human form.